I've been looking into Lafcadio Hearn's Japanese ghost stories, and I was wondering if anyone could tell me which book is best for this.
He wrote Kwaidan in 1904, and I see most people/websites cite this as a classic and his quintessential work. However, Penguin Books came out with two different collections of his fairly recently, Of Ghosts and Goblins, a little clothbound classic, and Japanese Ghost Stories, which is a Penguin classics paperback.
I have not been able to find the contents of Of Ghosts and Goblins anywhere.
Japanese Ghost Stories has a lot more stories than Kwaidan, including around half of the stories present in Kwaidan.
Does anyone know which collection would be the best to read, if I wanted to read a single collection?
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I have kwaidan and it's a blast but I've seen other anons who've read both say Japanese ghost stories is better. Kwaidan contains some of his studies on bugs as well.
Ah also, make sure Penguin is the cheapest option available to you. The edition I got was cheaper and looks and feels much nicer on top.
That's cultural appropriation
Does Japan celebrate Halloween ?
Only ironically as a facet of American media. They love American shit over there just as much as weebs love anime, and that's the lens through which they appreciate (rather than celebrate) Hallowe'en. Nobody goes door to door trick or treating. Maybe some decorations, that's it.
How is his Library of America collection? Or his translation of Flaubert, for that matter?
I preferred the film (1965 one, saw mention of a more recent one but I am not sure if that is a remake or just has the same name), which is fairly rare for me as I am not much for watching things on screens. The book had very little impact for me.
Bump
I appreciate your persistence but unfortunately I’ve never read Hearn. I plan to eventually as I was the anon asking about his LoA above. It sucks but IQfy isn’t too keen on fiction anymore, and minor classics and writers don’t have a wide audience here. Maybe if you keep it up for a few days a knowledgeable anon will stumble upon it. Best of luck
I don't come here that often anymore, so I didn't know about that. Sucks man.
Thanks a lot, that sounds good enough for me to consider going for Japanese Ghost Stories. (I had a feeling like that about Of Ghosts and Goblins)
This board is overrun with pseuds who only (pretend to) read philosophy, and have no time to waste on something as infantile as fiction. That's just the way it is.
I’ve always wondered what percentage of philosophyanons actually read primary source material
I actually have read Japanese Ghost Stories. I thought it was an excellent selection of all his most significant stories and very readable and enjoyable. The notes and intro are also sufficient. Ghost and Goblins is just another overpriced Penguin cloth hardback.
Kwaidan is the best. It has the best stories, including Hoichi the Earless, the story of the Yuki Onna, and some others. In Ghostly Japan is more like a companion piece of leftover folk tales. Haven't read Of Ghosts and Goblins.
I'm not talking about In Ghostly Japan, but the Penguin classics version called Japanese Ghost Stories (which also includes Hoichi the Earless and Yuki-Onna).
I can't imagine the book scratching the surface of the movie, I can't imagine any movie scratching the surface of kwaidans greatness, kwaidan made so many things obsolete. Kwaidan is the asiatics greatest achievement and maybe the worlds
Hearn is a great author, unironically got me interested in Touhou after Kwaidan
There's a digital complete works edition. If you're not buying it just to decorate your bookshelf go with that.